Moist Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Why oh why must we spend so much $$ on lattes and treats at coffee-houses when we can recreate the same goodness at home? This is me chilaxin' with my fix at home :)

My sister-in-law got me hooked on this banana bread....I added chocolate-chips, delish!
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4cup canola or olive oil
1/4cup mayo (reduced-fat)
1 1/3cup mashed very ripe bananas, about 3
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2cup flour, I use white wheat flour (to sneak in some more fiber)**
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2cup toasted walnuts
1/2cup chocolate chips
**white wheat flour is just unbleached all-purpose flour with wheat bran

DIRECTIONS:
1. Mash bananas in mixing bowl, then add sugar, egg, vanilla, oil & mayo until smooth.
2. In another bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, baking soda & salt.
3. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture in batches stirring until moistened.
4. Add walnuts & chocolate chips.
5. Pour into greased 9x5" loaf pan; I used a glass pie dish (doesn't matter)
6. Bake at 350F for 1hr, or until toothpick comes out clean and banana bread golden brown. For the glass dish 45 minutes was more than enough.

Now for the latte...it helps if you have an espresso machine at home. We got a steal of a deal on this espresso machine during a 24hr flash sale, all I can say is "SCORE!"Do not fret if you don't have a fancy machine, just buy good-quality espresso beans and make some strong coffee from your coffee maker. I recommend Illy Coffee.Then buy a hand-held milk frother, put your milk in the microwave until almost boiling and froth away! 

The website below is a FREE 53 page e-book on copy-cat Starbucks-like recipes, it includes everything from the Caramel Macchiato to their pumpkin scones. It's a nice thing to have in case you get a craving for something; or are baking so proficiently that you want to open up your own coffee-shop and charge an arm and a leg for coffee and a sliver of cake!

http://www.coffeefair.com/free-coffee-recipes-ebook.htm
Do not worry it is SAFE, I have downloaded it with NO problems.

Ahh...what makes me look forward to waking up in the morning.....opps did I say that!?
 I mean seeing my kid's smiling faces ;)

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Loaf

I took the healthy pumpkin loaf recipe from Spark Recipes and added a low-fat cream cheese layer!

Tastes way better than the one from Starbucks!

1 cup margarine

3 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
4 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2/3 cup water
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 cup nuts

this will make 2 loaves...make one with cream cheese and one without!

1. Cream together margarine, sugar, and eggs.

2. Combine all dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture alternately with water and pumpkin.
3. Beat well.
4. Pour into 2 well greased loaf pans or makes 24 muffins. ***for cream cheese center
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minute (for loaves)or until toothpick comes out clean.

**for cream cheese center

1 pkg. (8 oz.) reduced-fat cream cheese, at room temperature

1 egg white

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

-whisk ingredients together until smooth

-Spoon half the pumpkin batter into 9x5-inch nonstick loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray; cover with cream cheese layer and top with remaining pumpkin batter.



What could be better than breakfast in bed??

Zucchini Bread

Not sure what do with those zucchini in your fridge?? Make zucchini bread :)

This makes 2 loafs:

3c. flour
1 1/2tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. canola oil (or what I did was 1/2c. oil, 1/4c. applesauce & 1/4c. light mayo)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 c. finely shredded zucchini
1/2c. chopped walnuts + 1tsp. flour

Directions:
1. Mix together dry ingredients from flour to salt, set aside.
2. In another bowl beat sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla, mix well.
3. Add zucchini to sugar/egg mxiture.
4. Fold in flour mixture until lumpy, add walnuts. Hand stir until uniform.
5. Pour batter inside greased loaf pans.
6. Bake at 350F for 1hr & 10min, until golden brown and inserted toothpick comes out clean